This morning I was continuing my reading of Mark's Gospel, and saw something I found interesting regarding Jesus, children and the disciples. There are two sets of verses.
Mark 9:35-37,42 NIV:
[35] "Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
[36] "He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, [37] “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
[42] “If anyone causes one of these little ones---those who believe in me---to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea."
Mark 10:13-16 NIV:
[13] "People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. [14] When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. [15] Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” [16] And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them."
What caught my attention this morning was the relative density of the disciples. We don't really know how much time elapsed from the verses in Chapter 9 to the verses in chapter 10, but apparently dealing with children was a regular issue for the disciples, for it is mentioned two times in relatively short order, and the basic rule is if Jesus says it once, its obviously important, but if He says it two times, we really need to make sure we grasp this issue in our heart and mind. However, it appears that the disciples missed the significance of Jesus placing a child in their midst and then taking the child in His arms! I mean look at what He says, if we welcome a child in His name, we welcome not only Him, but His Father. That raises the question, if we want to welcome the Father, and we want to welcome Jesus, why do so many churches not welcome the children into our worship gatherings?
Secondly, if we look at the verses from Chapter 10, we see Jesus again absolutely making room in the midst of His discussions with the disciples for the children to come to Him. I can just imagine the disciples saying to the parents, 'bring your kids another time when Jesus isn't teaching us', or maybe, 'don't interrupt the Teacher, can't you see he is busy?' Again I wonder how often this is the thinking behind our separating out children into their own Sunday services? We can think of children as distracting and Jesus clearly rebuked the disciples for that type of thinking. In fact, He goes on to say something quite radical, " the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these."
The Kingdom of God was Jesus' primary message, the very message He sent the 12 and then the 72 out to proclaim, and here He says that the Kingdom belongs to them, or such as these. The Greek word translated "such as these" is the word Toioutos. It is a compound word made up of two root words, the first being Toi, meaning certainly, and the second being Houtous, meaning this or these. The word translates belongs is the Greek word Eimi, and it means to be, to exist, to happen, to be present and in the King James version was most of the time translated I Am, a clear reference to God's presence. In other words, a possible translation could be the Kingdom of God, (and by reference My presence) is certainly present in these (Children). Wow!
So I ask myself, have I missed something really important here? Is there some richness of the Kingdom and the Lord's presence that we are meant to experience through our children? Am I so worried about singing the song, or focusing on God during worship that I miss what is apparently available through welcoming children? More importantly for our churches, is separating the children out from the adults during worship actually hindering our pursuit of God and His presence? Is there grace in Him to be able to welcome them into our midst and experience God's pleasure and intimacy in new ways? I think that answer is clearly yes!
My experience at many of our churches is that they run a clean program, a certain number of songs, all carefully orchestrated to stay within certain time allotments. There is not much openness to deviating from the worship set. The children are removed from the service for the teaching, and oftentimes the worship time for several reasons, but often one othose reasons is because we adults don't want to be distracted, and yet we see clearly here the Lord making a very strong statement concerning children. I am always aware of how Jesus made time each person he encountered, and by His words and actions we see that He considered children just as important as His disciples and followers. I have read some things that say children in His day were considered second class citizens, and I don't know if that is true or not, but regardless, we see Jesus specifically taking a child and placing them right in the midst of the Apostles and disciples, and then taking them in His arms. He wasn't worried about the distraction they might cause, in fact He specifically took time for them.
I have a feeling that Jesus was not at all concerned about staying with certain allotted time frames, nor worried about taking too much time on one person, nor concerned about what we call distractions. He loved each and every person He encountered, and welcomed them into relationship and His embrace if possible. Maybe we can learn to emulate Jesus and worry less about distraction and time and more about personal encounter with Him, and each other.
Amen! Lord, help us to step out of this mindset that church is just for an hour or two on Sunday, and instead embrace the fact that our whole lives are meant to be full of You, and our membership in the Body of Christ includes loving one another all the time, not just on Sunday. Help us to put the proper value on each other, and work to encourage and build one another up! We don't want to just put in our time and go, but rather have our Sunday celebrations just flow out of our normal lives of fellowship and community. Help us to welcome our children as equal members of Your Body, and carriers of Your presence and Kingdom.
No comments:
Post a Comment